Book Review: Two Brides Too Many by Mona Hodgson/3 Stars

About the book:

Kat and Nell Sinclair are headed west—away from the manicured lawns of Maine to the boisterous, booming mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado to start new lives for themselves as mail-order brides.

Aboard the train, romantic dreamer Nell carries a photo of her intended close to her heart and imagines an exciting and love-filled future, while her pragmatic older sister Kat resigns herself to marriage as a duty, not a delight.

But when the ladies disembark at the train depot, neither fiancé Patrick Maloney or Judson Archer awaits them with open arms. The well-bred Sinclair sisters find themselves unexpectedly alone in the wild, frontier town—a place where fire threatens to reduce the buildings to rubble, the working women strut the streets, rogues will gamble for the shoes on one’s feet, and God’s grace is found amongst the most unlikely of folks.

Two sisters.  Two missing misters.  A shocking welcome to the wild west that leaves both Kat and Nell Sinclair questioning their dreams­ and the hope for true love.

My thoughts:

This was a sweet, western, mail-order bride romance that had me curious from the very beginning.  I loved that the plot started in the first couple of chapters and found two of the Sinclair sisters, Kat and Nell, on their way to becoming mail-order brides in Cripple Creek, Colorado.  Nell was the more excited of the two at the prospect of becoming a new bride, while Kat really seemed to just be along for the ride.  Unfortunately for both of them, they were stood up at the train station with no clues whatsoever about the whereabouts of their intendeds.

From that point on, the story declined.  I tried so hard to get interested in it, but there seemed to be very little substance and too much fluff.  There were also too many characters early on, with some of them not adding much of anything to the overall story.  I also would've liked the story to have focused on either Kat or Nell, and not both.  I found myself more interested in Nell's story, but it was second fiddle to Kat's up-and-down story with Morgan.  Very little of the story had any focus, which was very sad as this could've been a very engaging, enjoyable read.

I am curious about the next book in the series which focuses on another Sinclair sister named Ida.  The blurb from that book looks very interesting as she sounds like she's got a head for business, which will be a different take on a woman's role in the late 1800's.  Hopefully, it will only focus on just Ida, and not too many other unnecessary characters.

3 Stars

Southern?  No
Sass?  Some; my favorite line came when Paddy told Kat they could get hitched tomorrow.  Kat quickly replied, "Hitching is something you do with a horse and a wagon, Mr. Maloney."  (You tell 'im, girl!)